Or maybe in your house, the screaming ends with the word ghosts, or zombies, or the boogie man (does he even still ‘exist’?). I remember mine ended with EVIL MICKEY MOUSE! I was a strange kid with a wild imagination. I had a Walt Disney poster that spanned nearly one wall of my room that had every Disney character on it. I loved it and refused to take it down because by day, it was so beautiful; it’s just by night, all the characters turned evil. It was terrifying and as it is with most interactions had with children, a conundrum for the adults to solve.

The solution to a monster problem:
This is the little gem I want to share with you, “MONSTER AWAY SPRAY” or whatever word that follows the screaming.

Just before bedtime, spray this around the room and assure them that this spray will keep those scary monsters away. I got some labels pre-made for you, all you have to do is print out the label and glue it onto a child-friendly plastic bottle that has a fine mist spray. Then, simply fill with water or you could add a little extra magic and throw in some colourful sequins or big glitter pieces. Let me emphasise on the word, BIG glitter pieces – I don’t want you to accidentally glitter bomb your own house.
Please let me know how you go.
Leave comments or better still, send a photo of your creation to sidebyside@hippoblue.com.au I would love to see them.

With Love,
Big Bella.

P.S. If monsters are specifically the problem, try reiterating the story that not all monsters are bad. Your credibility can be backed up with a little help from the MONSTERS INC. movie. (You know, because TV never lies… #apparently)

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Amongst the excessiveness of chocolate offerings, screaming kids going through sugar highs and sugar lows; at the centre of it all, Easter brings family and friends together.

Whether you celebrate the religious significance of Easter or not, if you have a family outing or BBQ on the calendar this weekend, you are embracing the spirit of the season. Easter is a time to “Celebrate Life” and what better way to celebrate life then to share food and drinks in good company and make plenty of wonderful new memories with the people that you love most.

We think Easter is a wonderful time of year, especially for the little ones and the one activity we know kids love the most about Easter, is the good ole Easter egg hunt. So, we wanted to share with you some ideas on how you can give the traditional Easter egg hunt, a few easy twists to make it a little more entertaining.

Why not start the hunt with a “BANG!”
By getting the kids to pop balloons!
Not only are they great for decorations but you can also easily roll up and hide inside them a clue to their next goodie, the Easter egg map and/or depending on your mess tolerance, you can fill up balloons with confetti and watch the kids dance as the confetti drops around them.

Make it educational!
Never one to miss a chance to make education fun.
This is one for the older kids, select a few eggs and stick a letter on each. At the end of the hunt ask the kids to make the longest word that they can, using only the eggs they collected themselves. The kid who makes the longest word wins!

All things fair.Ok, we know life isn’t fair. However, if you have kids of all ages playing, the chances are the little ones loot is going to be significantly smaller. A way to combat this is through colour coordination (or sharing, yes); it will also help teach your little ones about colour. Tell the big kids that all eggs that are yellow and red are theirs for the picking, and to leave the blue and green ones for the little ones.

The PRIZED EGG.Hide one PRIZED EGG. Either one GIANT egg (which is a prize in itself) or a plastic egg, filled with a special surprise. A special surprise could be:
– A small toy
– Lots of smaller candy
– A note saying that they get to pick the next family take away dinner.

MIX IT UPWho said it just had to be eggs anyway?
Why not add books to the hunt? Or a bunch of flowers? A plant? Little notes? Or something they can use to entertain themselves on the long weekend such as activity books? A ball? A bucket and spade?

DRESS UP packages.For a bit of fun and a good laugh, wrap up some costumes in packages and hide them around the house or garden. As the kids find the packages, they must open the package and without a fuss, wear whatever item that’s inside. You could hide a wand, cape, tiara, tutu, bear feet, pirate hat, astronaut helmet, clown nose, purple wig… endless fun. As you can imagine, you might end up with quite the combination, Spiderman Princess, who is a wizard and has tissue boxes as shoes. Please do take a photo for us!

We hoped you enjoyed our twists.
Happy Easter! Have a wonderful and safe long weekend.

When we started Hippo Blue, we knew that we wanted to create a company that celebrated the adventure of being a kid. Every day, we all come in buzzing with excitement (sometimes… ok, always; with a little help from caffeine) to work together in creating wonderful products, which we hope will become, a small part of the journey between you and the special kids in your life. However, over time we realised it was more than just about the adventure of kids; it was also about the adventure of the adults in their lives.

So, what’s this blog all about?

You!

With no brick and mortar store (as yet), we wanted a way for us to communicate to you on a more personal level. We can’t say “Hello” or ask you how your day is or share funny stories with you face to face yet; as an alternative until we can, we hope that in creating this blog it will give us a chance to get to know you better and for you to get to know us better, as a company and as people. We want to be a part of your adventure as well as those, of the little ones in your life. We want to support you as if we are there with you, side by side.

What can you expect?

In a nutshell – Insights, ideas, special treats – from us to you that is only exclusive to this blog and hopefully, a few laughs. There will be posts from our founders, Sam Dickson and Thin Neu; and from our very own Big Bella. As we go along, please do give us feedback on the things you like, the things you don’t like and what you would like to see more of. From time to time, we may ask for contributions from you and sometimes we may even bribe you for contributions! haha

We encourage you to leave comments, share your own stories and help us build a community together.